Travellers warned as Syrian rebels set sights on airport

Zeina Karam

SYRIAN rebels fighting to topple the President, Bashar al-Assad, have declared Damascus International Airport a ''legitimate target'' in an attempt to cut off regime supplies, as clashes between government troops and rebels forced the closure of the airport road for the second time in a week.

Fighting around the capital and the airport has intensified in recent days as rebels press a battle they hope will lead to the collapse of Mr Assad's regime after 20 months of conflict.

They have set their sights on the city of 1.7 million, and fighting on the outskirts is raising fears that it soon could be facing the most brutal battle of the civil war.

As the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on a visit to Dublin, repeated calls for the ousting of Mr Assad the rebels issued a warning to the regime and travellers planning to use the airport a few kilometres south of the capital. Loss of control of the airport would be a huge blow to the regime.

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Nabil al-Amir a spokesman for the rebel Damascus Military Council that had put the airport under siege decided it was ''a fair target'', Reuters reported.

''The airport is now full of armoured vehicles and soldiers,'' Mr al-Amir said, seeming to suggest that it was still in government control. ''Civilians who approach it now do so at their own risk.''

Mrs Clinton met her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and the United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Dublin, but said there had been no ''great breakthrough''.

Reports from Syria suggested that government forces were trying to bring in reinforcements for a counterattack to reverse rebel gains on the fringes of the city.

Activists said government forces backed by tanks were heading towards two south-western suburbs, covering their effort to advance with rocket and mortar fire.

Clashes near the airport had forced the suspension of commercial flights over the past week, although airport officials on Friday said the facility was still functioning.

Rebels said they were trying to cut military supplies to the government. Iran and Russia were widely believed to be supplying it with weapons. Turkey and Iraq have stopped and searched several planes headed to Damascus.

Another rebel said the airport was now considered a ''military zone''.

''We urge civilians to stay away,'' said the member of the Damascus Military Council said.

The world chemical weapons watchdog has also asked Syria to sign a convention banning their use, expressing ''serious concerns'' that for the first time in the agreement's history they might be used.

The announcement by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons came amid speculation that Syria was looking to use such weapons against the rebel forces. The UN Secretary General,. Ban Ki-moon, said on Friday any such move would be an ''outrageous crime''.

The rebel threat seemed to deepen the uncertainties of the military campaign for Damascus, where visiting reporters said the sound of government artillery fire pounding outlying suburbs was clearly audible from the city centre - once a haven of tranquillity even as the uprising against Mr Assad evolved from peaceful protest in March last year to civil war.